The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits and in particular, to an integrated circuit design for facilitating insertion of the circuit into a circuit board.
Conventional integrated circuit packages (IC""s) include a plurality of contact elements, such as pins or balls which extend from a lower surface of the IC. These pins are arranged in a pattern which corresponds to a pattern of receiving cavities on a printed circuit board into which the IC is to be inserted. As is understood in the art, these pins conventionally extend from the lower surface of the IC and are electrically connected to at least one silicon chip attached to the upper surface of the IC.
The design of conventional IC""s require the IC to be inserted into the PCB in a specific orientation, thereby ensuring that the proper pins depending from the IC are inserted into appropriate cavities on the PCB. Because improper insertion of the IC into a PCB correspondingly results in the improper operation of the electronic device or damage to the device itself, conventional design requires steps to ensure that such improper insertion does not occur. Known steps to ensure such proper insertion typically include additional quality control measures, (e.g., additional review by installers), and additional mechanical means present on the IC""s or PCB""s for preventing the improper insertion of the IC, (e.g. keying of the IC""s). Each of these alternatives introduce additional expense into the production cost of the completed circuit board.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art of integrated circuits for an integrated circuit package design which substantially reduces the cost of producing printed circuit boards by removing the requirement that the integrated circuit be inserted within the board in a predetermined orientation.
The present invention overcomes the problems noted above, and provides additional advantages, by providing an integrated circuit package capable of operating in multiple orientations. In particular, the inventive circuit design includes an integrated circuit package having a plurality of contact elements or pins extending from the integrated circuit package and arranged symmetrically thereon for enabling the integrated circuit to be inserted on a circuit board in at least two discrete orientations. A plurality of the contact elements are designated as orientation pins, the orientation pins being arranged such that, upon integrated circuit package power up, the orientation pins transmit orientation signals indicative of the integrated circuit packages insertion orientation in the circuit board. A plurality of multiplexer devices are provided for routing signals between the contact elements and integrated circuit functional circuitry in response to the orientation signals from the orientation pins.
The integrated circuit package of the present invention enables the device to be inserted into a circuit board in any orientation. This reduces board production cost by eliminating the requirement to ensure correct device orientation prior to insertion into the circuit board.